Let’s Get Digital, Digital - Is The Future Of Politics Digital?
By Toby Byfield
In her smash hit 'Physical', Olivia Newton-John says that "I gotta handle you just right" - and that’s what we here at PoliMonitor believe when applying technology to something as fundamental as politics.
Technology has revolutionized some of the world’s oldest industries. Banking and finance has been turned on its head countless times already since the 1980s. Bustling trading floors are rapidly becoming a thing of the past, replaced by the gentle hums and clicks of computers as algorithms work their magic on the stock markets; crypto, emerging from the infancy of our understanding of blockchain technology, is threatening to up-end the longstanding paradigm of physical currency. Mark Zuckerburg’s metaverse threatens to change the very way we interact with our colleagues and loved ones.
But the use of technology in our politics, particularly Parliament, is chronically underutilized, leaving workers frustrated and productivity down. Post-Covid, Parliament has returned to gaggles of elected representatives shuffling through crowded lobbies to vote on important legislation. Parliament’s intranet keeps staffers up at night (whilst itself being down). Visitors to Portcullis House huddle together, their faces illuminated by the glare of their phones as they struggle to set up a hotspot for their colleagues to use. Hard-working Hansard reporters type away furiously onto blank pages as debates rage on into the night.
We aren’t saying that we should replace Members of Parliament with algorithms, or reduce Parliament to glitchy digital avatars squabbling over an animated despatch box. But a plethora of technology exists today that could speed up and enhance our democracy in a number of ways. PoliMonitor’s RoboHansard can provide verbatim Committee readouts instantly. Parliaments the world over make use of digital voting systems to speed up decision making. Office buildings can provide high-speed internet access to thousands of workers at a time. Parliament must start making use of innovative technologies like so many others are doing around the world.
There is no doubt that Parliament needs to embrace technology. But technology comes with challenges of its own. Can we truly entrust some lines of codes to tally up the ‘ayes’ and the ‘noes’ of our elected representatives? Who writes it? Who provides the hardware? Could we be left open to cyber attacks from hostile states or rogue hackers? These are the important questions to which answers remain elusive.
One question is easy to answer. Next month, our CEO Sam Cunningham will be speaking at an event hosted by the CIPR on ‘Is The Future Of Public Affairs & Politics Digital?’ - and our response is an unequivocal and emphatic, ‘yes’!
Find out more and register for this event here.